I run this topic on behalf of DG_Alpha due to failure on his part at that time. Nice review!
The Battle of Jutland, May 31st to June 1st, 1916
One hundred years ago, the greatest clash between battleships in the history of mankind occurred in one of the greatest fleet encounters, the
Battle of Jutland. The German High Seas Fleet under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer and the British Grand Fleet under Sir John Jellicoe forces clashed near the Jutland peninsula off the coast of Denmark.
The prelude to this encounter was the arms race of battleships that came before the Great War, when every great nation of the world scrambled to assemble as many dreadnought battleships as possible. For the Germans in their ambitious fleet building programs under Kaiser Wilhelm II., it became obvious from the start that they could not out build their main rival, the British Empire.
When the war broke out, the German fleet commanders focused their efforts on isolating small segments of the larger British fleet and ambushing them with their whole fleet, thus gradually establishing parity, if not superiority with their opponent. Key component to this strategy became the fast battlecruisers of the German fleet, which would act as a bait to draw the British elements into the awaiting German battleships. The British early on in the war established a naval blockade of the North Sea, thus trapping the German fleet and cutting the shipping import lines. Breaking this blockade also became an objective for the German fleet.
Several sorties with this objective had happened since the start of the war in 1914, including the bombardment raids against the British coastal cities, but until Jutland, a big encounter was avoided. This was also thanks to the fact that the German Navy was under strict orders to preserve its own ships at any cost and thus would rather retreat than face an opponent of unknown strength.
The German plan for what would end in the famous battle was to use the battlecruisers lure out British ships out of their harbour with and into waiting pickets of u-boats, which would lay in waiting at prepared locations. Originally the operation was planned on May 17th, but technical difficulties, especially with the recently damaged and just repaired battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz delayed the departure until May 29th. This put the waiting u-boats, which had departed at the original planned date, at the edge of their operational limit. Originally, the plan also included several Zeppelins as an aerial reconnaissance force, but the weather was so bad that their departure was delayed until noon of Ma 31st, with visibility remaining bad. On the other hand, the British deployed the seaplane tender HMS
Engadine, giving them an advantage with her less affected planes.
The British had long cracked the German codes and were well aware of the departure and location of the German battlecruiser fleet and the pickets, but missed the departure of main battleship fleet. When moving to engage the German fleet, the British moved on a zig-zag course, avoiding most of the German submarines. Only
U-32 and
U-66 found elements of the British fleet at different times and on different courses, thus giving the German command the impression that the British fleet had split up, moving in different directions. When the Germans met the British fleet on May 31st, it was much earlier than they had expected.
Overall, in pure numbers, the opposing sides fielded the following forces:
Great Britain:
- 28 battleships
- 9 battlecruisers
- 8 armoured cruisers
- 26 light cruisers
- 79 destroyers
- 1 seaplane tender
Germany:
- 22 battleships (incl. 6 pre-dreadnoughts)
- 5 battlecruisers
- 11 light cruisers
- 61 destroyers
The battle began between the fleets picket forces when both sides went to investigate a Danish steamer and the British cruiser HMS
Galatea fired the first shots at 14:28. The Germans, however scored the first hit when SMS
Elbing hit
Galatea back at 14:36. The main body of the scouting forces, the battlecruisers und the command of Vice-Admirals Beatty and Hipper respectively, made contact at around 15:30. Due to confusing communication, the British scouting forces had been split up between the battlecruisers and the fast battleships, resulting in the loss of superiority for the British forces. Hipper on the German side followed the battle plan and turned south, drawing his opponent into the approaching main fleet. The first shots were fired at 15:48 by the German forces, beginning the ‘run to the south’.
For over an hour both fleets exchanged fire, with conditions favouring the Germans. HMS
Lion was almost destroyed by a magazine hit from SMS
Lützow at 16:00. HMS
Indefatigable as hit in the magazines, exploded and sunk by shells from SMS
Von der Tann at 16:02. The British fast battleships rejoined the action at 16:15, combining their firepower on the Germans, but at 16:25 HMS
Queen Mary exploded by a combined salvo of SMS
Derfflinger and SMS
Seydlitz. Between the capital ships, the Germans scored 44 hits, compared to only 17 by the British. The light cruisers and destroyers of each scouting force engaged each other as well, with the Germans receiving a torpedo hit on SMS
Seydlitz as well as losing torpedo boats SMS
V27 and SMS
V29 and the British losing destroyers HMS
Nomad and HMS
Nestor.
At 16:30 the main German Fleet made contact with the fighting forces, alerting the British commanders Jellicoe at Beatty to fact that the German fleet was in fact at sea at all. Now reversing the situations, resulting the ‘the run to the north’, the British scouts lured the German fleet towards the British main body, Jellicoe’s battleships. Once again due to confusing orders, the British fast battleships found themselves as a rear guard, taking the brunt of the German firepower. However, as they had better armour and bigger guns, they took less damage but managed to score several critical hits.
The two British elements made contact at around 17:33 and soon a fierce battle ensued between the smaller ships of both sides. Several ships were damaged, but only the German cruiser SMS
Wiesbaden was sunk at 17:56 when it found itself under the concentrated fire of almost the entire British fleet.
The German battlecruisers and battleships made contact with each other at 18:00 and moved into position to engage the British fleet. So far the Germans were only aware of the presence of the additional three battlecruisers under Rear-Admiral Hood, not the fact that the entire British fleet was waiting for them. The British re-organized their fleet as well, resulting in confused traffic, which led the cruisers HMS
Defence and HMS
Warrior and the battleships HMS
Warspite turning accidently into the concentrated firing arc of the German fleet. HMS
Defence was sunk while both HMS
Warrior and HMS
Warspite were heavily damaged and effectively out of the battle.
The German fleet engaged Hood’s battlecruisers at 18:19 with visibility favouring the British, resulting in several critical hits on Hipper’s flagship, SMS
Lützow. However, in a small moment of clear sight, both SMS
Lützow and SMS
Derfflinger fired on Hood’s flagship, HMS
Invincible, hit the magazines and sunk the battlecruiser, taking the admiral with her. Shortly afterwards, Hipper had to abandon SMS
Lützow to the destroyer SMS
G39, due to the damage done to the communication equipment.
At 18:30, the entirety of the British fleet came into view, completely surprising the German fleet and in a perfect position to ‘cross the T’. Vice-Admiral Scheer reacted immediately and ordered his fleet to turn at 18:33, a quick reaction, as only 10 of the 24 British battleships had a chance to shoot. However, the darkness of the night was yet too far away and Scheer made the decision to turn again, hoping to confuse the enemy and win enough time. In the fight between the cruisers and destroyers the previously damaged HMS
Shark was torpedoed and sunk.
The German fleet once again had its T crossed, this time at a much closer range. Several battleships took numerous hits, especially those of the 3rd squadron, but in return, only HMS
Colossus was hit twice. Scheer once again ordered a turn and to cover his escape, also ordered a torpedo attack by his battlecruisers against the British fleet.
With Hipper still on SMS
G39, the command of the battlecruisers fell to Captain Hartog of SMS
Derfflinger to lead the charge. While the German destroyer forces launched their torpedo attacks, from 19:05 to 19:30 the battlecruisers ran straight into the concentrated firepower of 18 British battleships. The crews of the ships suffered heavy casualties from the 37 high calibre hits; SMS
Derfflinger alone was hit 14 times, losing both of her forward turrets. Only SMS
Moltke escaped unscathed. Despite the heavy fire all German battlecruisers survived, having been built with a focus on armour instead of range and firepower. The destroyers meanwhile managed to launch their torpedoes and drove the British battlecruisers away, so the German Fleet could escape, but in return both SMS
S35 and SMS
V48 were sunk.
In the fading light of the day the last action took place as the British battlecruisers caught up with their retreating counterparts, but relieve came from the obsolete pre-dreadnoughts of the German fleet which so far had only hindered the German mobility with their low top speed. The last shots of the day were exchanged between HMS
King George V and SMS
Westfalen at around 20:35.
What followed was the night action of the Battle of Jutland as the German fleet made its way home to port. Jellicoe had hoped to intercept Scheer on his projected way home to German ports, but Scheer took a different route than expected. The German forces came extremely close to the British main fleet, but the British battleships never opened fire or reacted to the German fleet due to a combination of missed or misinterpreted reports and radio jamming. Instead most of the fighting was done by the British destroyers and cruisers in extreme close range almost from the onset of the night to the early morning hours June 1st.
At around 22:23 the cruiser HMS
Southampton came under heavy fire but managed to sink cruiser SMS
Frauenlob. The British cruiser HMS
Black Prince had become lost and mistook the German fleet for British ships and joined the enemy’s formation. The German battleship SMS
Thüringen recognized the newcomer and destroyed the cruiser at point blank range shortly after midnight. German battlecruisers SMS
Seydlitz and SMS
Moltke almost shared the same fate. The cruiser SMS
Rostock was shelled and torpedoed at around 1:30 and had to be scuttled several hours later. Battlecruiser SMS
Lützow, heavily damaged from before, had to be scuttled at around 1:45. Half an hour later, at around 2:15 torpedo boat SMS
V4 was lost due to unknown causes. Destroyer HMS
Onslaught torpedoed the German pre-dreadnought SMS
Pommern, which sunk at 3:10. In the darkness, several British destroyers collided with each other and HMS
Spitfire was rammed by the German battleship SMS
Nassau. While in this instance both ships survived this collision despite the damage, the German battleship SMS
Posen rammed the friendly cruiser SMS
Elbing, resulting in the scuttling of the smaller ship. In addition to HMS
Black Prince, the British also lost the destroyers HMS
Tipperary, HMS
Ardent, HMS
Fortune, HMS
Sparrowhawk and HMS
Turbulent during the night.
The last action of the battle was when SMS
Ostfriesland hit a British mine at 5:02. Although damaged, the ship survived.
The battle had ended and as soon as reports came out, both sides claimed victory: The Germans had sunk more ships, inflicted more losses, but had failed their main objective, breaking the blockade or ending the British dominance at sea; both points in which the British could claim victory.
Overall the losses were:
Great Britain:
- 3 Battlecruisers (Indefatigable, Queen Mary, Invincible)
- 3 Armoured cruisers (Black Prince, Warrior, Defence)
- 8 Destroyers (Tipperary, Shark, Sparrowhawk, Turbulent, Ardent, Fortune, Nomad, Nestor)
- 6,784 men killed in action
Germany:
- 1 Battlecruiser (Lützow)
- 1 Battleship (Pommern)
- 4 Light cruisers (Frauenlob, Elbing, Rostock, Wiesbaden)
- 5 Destroyers (V48, S35, V27, V4, V29)
- 3,039 men killed in action
To honour the anniversary of one of the greatest battles in history a little project was initiated two years ago between several members of the shipbucket community, to represent both fleets as they faced each other in these fateful hours. There were two teams, one working on the British side and one for the German side. This post, as you might have guessed from the title, will show the German side of the fleet. So big thank you goes out for all the artists who contributed to this project over the years and of course to bombhead for coming up with this idea in the first place.
German Order of Battle during the Battle of Jutland
Battleship fleet
Commander in chief: Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer
Fleet flagship: SMS
Friedrich der Große (3rd Squadron, 6th division)
Third Battle Squadron
Flag 5th Division: Rear-Admiral Behnke (SMS
König)
Flag 6th Division Rear-Admiral Nordmann (SMS
Kaiser)
First Battle Suqadron
Flag 1st Division: Vice-Admiral Schmidt (SMS
Ostfriesland)
Flag 2nd Division: Rear-Admiral Engelhardt (SMS
Posen)
Second Battle Squadron
Flag 3rd Division: Rear-Admiral Mauve (SMS
Deutschland)
Flag 4th Divsion: Rear-Admiral Gottfried von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels (SMS
Hannover)
Fourth Scouting Group
Flag: Commodore von Reuter (SMS
Stettin)
and
Flagship of the torpedo boat flotillas SMS
Rostock
Flag: Commodore Michelsen
1st Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag 1st Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Albrecht (SMS
G39)
3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Lieutenant-Commander Hollmann (SMS
S53)
Flag 5th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Gautier (SMS
V71)
Flag 6th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant-Commander Riedel (SMS
V48)
5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Lieutenant-Commander Heinecke (SMS
G11)
Flag 9th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Hoefer (SMS
V2)
Flag 10th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Klein (SMS
G8)
7th Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Lieutenant-Commander von Koch (SMS
S24)
Flag 13th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant von Zitzewitz (SMS
S15)
Flag 14th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant-Commander Cordes (SMS
S19)
Scouting Fleet
First Scouting Group
Flag: Vice-Admiral von Hipper (SMS
Lützow)
Second Scouting Group
Flag: Rear-Admiral Bödicker (SMS
Frankfurt)
and
Flagship of the torpedo boat flotillas (Scouting Forces) SMS
Regensburg
Flag: Commodore Heinrich
2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Commander Schuur (SMS
B98)
Flag 3rd Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant-Commander Boest (SMS
G101)
Flag 4th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant-Commander Dithmar (SMS
G109)
6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Lieutenant-Commander Schultz(SMS
G41)
Flag 11th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Rüman (SMS
V44)
Flag 12th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Lahs (SMS
V69)
9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla
Flag: Lieutenant-Commander Goehle (SMS
V28)
Flag 17th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant Buddecke (SMS
V27)
Flag 18th Half-Flotilla: Lieutenant-Commander Tillessen (SMS
V30)